VIKSAT (Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction)

Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction (VIKSAT) was set up in the year 1977 as an activity of the Nehru Foundation for Development (NFD) to take proactive steps to conserve the environment. VIKSAT felt that lack of interactions is a major bottleneck in involving individuals and organizations in environment protection. Hence, VIKSAT articulates its mission as promoting and strengthening people's institutions through interactions, for an equitable, gender sensitive, sustainable development and management of natural resources.

VIKSAT Management Council Chairman: Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

About Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is an Indian agriculture scientist, born August 7, 1925, in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu. He was the second of four sons of a doctor. He is known as the "Father of the Green Revolution in India", for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder and Chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty. Dr. Swaminathan is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an "evergreen revolution" In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the Time 20 list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.

VIKSAT Affiliated Institutions:

KHAMIR (Centre for Kachchh Heritage, Arts, Music and Information Resources)

Operational Area:

Field Area No Of Village

Bhiloda Taluka Sabarkantha District : 75

Santalpur Taluka Patan District : 25

Satlasana Taluka Mehsana District : 41

Khedbrahma Taluka Sabarkantha District : 15

Bhuj Taluka Kutch District : 100

Dungarpur Rajasthan State : 15

Total No of village : 271

VIKSAT’s Strength

No of staff : Programme: staff (40)

: Support staff (12)

Expertise- : Social Scientist

: Agriculturalist

: Forestry Expert

: Civil Engineer

: Accounts

: Business Management

: Economist

: Geohydrologist

: MIS & GIS Experts

: Trainers

Field of Expertise

Afforestation

Forest Management

Watershed Development

Joint Forest Management and Participating Development

Tree Improvement, seed Technology, Forestry Research and

Development

Forest Ecology

Participatory Rural Appraisal, Micro-Planning and Area

Planning

Evaluation

Survey and sampling

Social Development for Natural Resource Management

Poverty and Vulnerability Analyses

Gender Analysis

Agro-forestry and Farm Forestry

Agriculture

Rural Development

Drought Proofing Programme

Biodiversity conservation

Water & Sanitation

Appreciation

Participation in World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002. The case of Malekpur Village, Bhiloda taluka, Sabarkantha District, Gujarat, a model village developed under JFM programme by VIKSAT

VIKSAT received a Prestigious National Award Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Puraskar in 1997 from Ministry of Environment & Forests, New Delhi in the Voluntary Agencies categories. The Awards is in recognition of exceptional contributions in the field of afforestation and wastelands development.

VIKSAT Promoted Shree Janjharmata TGCs, Malekpur. received a Prestigious National Award Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Puraskar in 2002 from Ministry of Environment & Forests, New Delhi in the Village Level Institutions categories. The Awards is in recognition of exceptional contributions in the field of afforestation and wastelands development